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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
National
David Pierson

Facebook's Zuckerberg questioned on Cambridge Analytica, European regulations and privacy settings

WASHINGTON _ Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for his second and final day of hearings over the Cambridge Analytica data leak.

Zuckerberg took questions from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The testimony follows a day in which Zuckerberg faced hours of inquiry from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Zuckerberg completed that session largely unscathed, with few concrete calls for regulation.

On Wednesday, Zuckerberg was quickly confronted about a particularly thorny issue for Facebook: making privacy the default setting rather than the other way around.

Asked directly by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) whether he would commit to such a change, Zuckerberg declined to say "yes" or "no."

"This is a complex issue that deserves more than a one-word answer," he said.

"That's disappointing," Pallone replied.

Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas addressed the perception that conservative voices are marginalized on Facebook, citing the banning of popular right-wing personalities Diamond & Silk.

Zuckerberg said that the banning of the page was a mistake and that it had been reinstated.

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) demanded that Zuckerberg make Facebook's privacy disclosures easier for consumers to understand. When she pressed Zuckerberg on whether he would change the company's business model to bolster user privacy and security, the tech executive responded, "Congresswoman, I'm not sure what that means."

Zuckerberg also told Eshoo that he was among the 87 million Facebook users whose personal information was harvested by Cambridge Analytica.

Lawmakers asked about the introduction of strict new privacy rules in the European Union, which limit how much data companies like Facebook can access.

Zuckerberg said Facebook would offer the same level of worldwide privacy required by the so-called General Data Protection Regulation.

When Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) asked whether users could opt out of including their data for all marketing purposes per the GDPR's rules, Zuckerberg could not answer.

"I'm not sure how we're going to implement that yet," he said. "Let me follow up with you on that."

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